The 30 Best Quotes From The 2012 Republican Convention

29) “(My father) stood behind a bar in the back of the room all those years, so one day I could stand behind a podium in the front of a room. That journey, from behind that bar to behind this podium, goes to the essence of the American miracle – that we’re exceptional not because we have more rich people here. We’re special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, come true here.” — Marco Rubio

28) “Fifty-five years ago, when my dad was a penniless teenager, thank God some well-meaning bureaucrat didn’t put his arm around him and say ‘let me take care of you.’” —- Ted Cruz.

27) “None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers — a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.” — Paul Ryan

26) “And on a personal note — a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham — the most segregated big city in America — her parents can’t take her to a movie theater or a restaurant — but they make her believe that even though she can’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter — she can be President of the United States and she becomes the Secretary of State. Yes, America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect. But of course it has never been inevitable — it has taken leadership, courage and an unwavering faith in our values.” — Condi Rice

25) “With all their attack ads, the President is just throwing away money…and he’s pretty experienced at that.” — Paul Ryan

24) “The only just government is the government that serves its citizens, not itself.” — Cardinal Timothy Dolan

23) “President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro’s Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia’s President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.” — Mitt Romney

22) “They’ve got a Jobs Council that never meets. A Democratic Senate that doesn’t act. A President who doesn’t believe and a Vice President who won’t stop talking. They just don’t get it.” — Tom Stemberg

21) “Here is their plan. Whistle a happy tune while driving us off a fiscal cliff as long as they are behind the wheel of power when we fall.” — Chris Christie

20) “I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a ‘storybook marriage.’ Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or Breast Cancer. A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage.” — Ann Romney

19) “I’ve come to realize that Barack Obama is the tattoo president. Like a big tattoo, it seemed cool when you were young. But later on, that decision doesn’t look so good, and you wonder: what was I thinking? But the worst part is you’re still going to have to explain it to your kids.” — Tim Pawlenty

18) “(Obama) hasn’t been working to earn reelection, he’s been working to earn a spot on the PGA tour!” — Mitch McConnell

16) “The man assumed office almost four years ago — isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?” — Paul Ryan

15) “My working poor parents told me that I could do better. They taught me that I was as good as anybody else. And it never occurred to them to tell me that I could just rest comfortably and wait for good old Uncle Sugar to feed me, lead me and then bleed me.” — Mike Huckabee

14) “It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that’s left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday’s wind.” — Paul Ryan

13) “You know there is something wrong with the kind of job he has done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.” — Mitt Romney

11) “You, me…we own this country. Politicians are employees of ours….And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.” — Clint Eastwood

10) “When you hear the party that glorified Occupy Wall Street blast success; when you hear them minimize the genius of the men and women who make jobs out of nothing, is that what you teach your children about work?” — Artur Davis

9) “Mom and Dad were married 64 years. And if you wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist — because every day Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That’s how she found out what happened on the day my father died — she went looking for him because that morning, there was no rose.” — Mitt Romney

8) “Ronald Reagan used to say America was a city on a hill. Under Obama, America is becoming a tent city with people waiting in line for government handouts.” – Yash Wadhwa

7) “College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.” — Paul Ryan

6) “Barack Obama’s failed us. But look, it’s understandable. A lot of people fail at their first job.” — Tim Pawlenty

5) “Well I’m sure now that the press is going to tell you (Mitt Romney) isn’t perfect. Now my friends for the past four years, we’ve tried the one that the press thought was perfect and that hasn’t worked out all that well for us.” — Mike Huckabee

3) “In 1923 there were no government benefits for immigrants except one: Freedom!” — Rick Santorum

2) “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise…is to help you and your family.” — Mitt Romney

1) “The Democrats say we ought to give Barack Obama credit for trying. That sounds like the nonsense of giving every kid a trophy for showing up. Friends, we’re talking about leading the country, not playing on a third-grade soccer team! I realize this is the man who got a Nobel Peace Prize for what he would potentially do, but in the real world, you get the prize for producing something, not just promising it.” — Mike Huckabee

Update: Two quotes that should have been on the list, but were accidentally deleted were added back in.